The Albuquerque Journal first reported the booking, which takes place at Tingley Coliseum, Albuquerque, N.M. UFC officials subsequently confirmed the matchup.

03-28-2014, 04:15 PM

Fedorlei Gomipierre

This is the type of fight Diego can actually win, but Pearson's standup is pretty crisp and tidy, so I think it depends on his ability not to play into a brawl.

03-28-2014, 04:47 PM

nbm02ss

Diego will lose and then blame it on the sushi he ate the night before.

03-28-2014, 04:55 PM

IceCold48

I want Diego to lose just so that I can hear his excuse.

03-28-2014, 06:08 PM

The8thPlague

this is definitely the fight Diego needs, but I'm a huge Pearson fan and hope he picks Diego apart.

03-28-2014, 08:33 PM

cosmicsunn

Didn't Diego mention on twitter that this will be his last fight? So, is he going to retire after this fight? I like Pearson and I'll be rooting for him but it would be sad to see Diego retire with a loss.

03-28-2014, 08:51 PM

lwbrewer

If he isn't retiring soon he may never know himself with the abuse he's taken.

"To be honest, I don't feel like I've been hit very hard. I think when I was fighting at 70, I took a couple hard hits and of course BJ (Penn) hit me hard, but aside from that, I think it's more cuts than anything. I'm not taking a lot of damage, I've never felt foggy after a fight, I've never had a concussion in a fight and I've never been knocked out...As far as taking all the trauma, no, that's not the issue. It's the cuts."

The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) season 1 winner hasn't had the best results as of late, either, losing five fights out of eight since his unsuccessful attempt at claiming lightweight gold against B.J. Penn at UFC 107.

Then came this epic meltdown.

His fifth round loss to "The Prodigy" could have been an early indication of things to come, since he took a hefty beating complete with one of the gnarliest cuts ever seen (see it). Perhaps Sanchez just needs to fix up and look sharper, since this could be a simple case of the old wear and tear.

Like his former rival Nick Diaz did a few years back (pic), Sanchez is considering undergoing surgery to eliminate some scar tissue to reduce his cuts and bleeding in future fights.

"Eventually maybe after this fight, when I have a break in my schedule, I want to do that surgery that Nick Diaz got where they go in there and scrape the scar tissue and he seemed to have a lot of success with that. I'm getting to that point in my career where that might be a better option for me. Because taking the cuts that I am, I'm always battling the judges and it just hinders me."

04-02-2014, 09:00 PM

Goremire

Battling the judges eh? Seems to me like if it were not for the liberal interpretation of 'effective' in respect to striking and grappling by some judges that Diego may well be a lot worse than 13-7 in the UFC.

04-03-2014, 05:59 PM

jhemp81

I cant see this fight ending well for Sanchez. Pearson, though his reach seems short, has crisp boxing and hits really hard. Diego, to my mind has only 2 skills, weight cutting and aggression. those 2 things alone dont cut it anymore.